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Thursday, 23 February 2012

Ha'ir, Saudi Arabia

I took my usual route down to Ha'ir pivot fields today along the wadi from Dirab and it seems that migration is now starting. On the way to the pivot fields I stopped by the roost at the fish farm which held 82 black kite.

I spent 8 hours walking most of the pivots and the waterside edges to the south. The irrigation equipment provided a good perch for a large count of 105 cattle egret.

Cattle egret

The first group of migrants were two flocks of common swift that moved quickly through, clearly much darker than the usual pallid swift. The next flock of migrants was 9 lesser kestrel hovering over an irrigated alfalfa field. The paths around the fields held the usual desert wheatear but also present were 3 pied wheatear no doubt newly arrived.

Steppe grey shrike

Several species of shrike were present including my first woodchat shrike for Saudi Arabia and at the side of the same pivot field was a nice rufous morph steppe buzzard.